Cupcakes for Clara

make do and meet

On Wednesday it was the annual Make Do & Meet event hosted by Not On The High Street for their sellers. It was at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, and was a day full of workshops, inspirational talks, meetings, chatting, cake eating, and finishing with the Make Awards.

I was incredibly lucky to have been shortlisted for the storefront success award, so when I rolled out of bed at 3.50am for my 5.13am train I was completely excited and *incredibly nervous* about heading down to London. 

I started the day by meeting a few other Noths sellers in a coffee shop nearby for a pre-event breakfast. It was lovely to meet so many people that I chat with online. 

After coffee we headed to the Opera House for the start of Make Do & Meet. Goodie bags were handed out, and Noths staff made us all feel so welcome. There was plenty of tea (which I was very grateful for after my super early start), and plenty of time to mingle with each other. I think there were a few hundred sellers there so it was quite busy. Thankfully everyone had name badges on! 

The day properly started with a talk by Holly & Sophie, the founders of Noths. It was pretty exciting and the plans for growth are huge. 

I had a meeting with my account manager who was even lovelier in real life than I had imagined. She talked me through how things have gone since I joined, my sales forecasts for the year, what the team thought of my Christmas product range, and the plans for growing my business.

I was introduced to the product development team, and spoke with the Christmas planning team. It still feels a little strange to be working on Christmas in May, but would you believe I'm already thinking about my Spring 2014 range! 

I went to workshops, and talks, and my phone started going crazy with messages and tweets from other sellers when my shop was used as an example of good branding in one of the most popular talks by Pretty Little Head. How awesome is that?! Noths even tweeted Tom to tell him - isn't that lovely?

I'm sad that I didn't get to see the talk, but everything has been filmed so I'll get to watch it at some point soon.

At the back of the main hall was this huge banner with all of the Make Award shortlisters on. The photos looked amazing!

The Make Awards section was fast approaching and by mid-afternoon I was a nervous wreck. I was so thrilled to have been shortlisted, especially given the amazingly high standard of the other shortlisted sellers. But the thought of winning, which would mean walking out in front of hundreds of people, got me pretty nervous. 

But guess what...

I won!!! 

I couldn't believe it when my name was called. I still can't. I am so new to the site, and am seriously just making all this running my own business stuff up as I go along. I am absolutely over the moon to have won the Storefront Success Award. More than over the moon, I'm over all of the stars and out of the universe!

And do you know what else - when my name was called out people started cheering and whooping. Cheering and whooping for me! For little old me. I have never felt so special and so proud.

It was amazing! And look at those beautiful prizes. 

People were so kind and have congratulated me with such genuine joy, it's really blown me away. I still feel quite overwhelmed by people's reactions to me winning the award. On facebook, twitter, emails, in person, the response has just made me feel so special.

And I would like to thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart. 

Eek!

I still can't believe I won!!!!

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dinosaur roar

Last week Matilda brought a letter home from school to say that her class is doing a dinosaur themed assembly in June and that she could dress up as a dinosaur or explorer. She instantly ran upstairs and grabbed this costume out of her dressing up drawer.

My mum made this costume fourteen years ago when my sister Amy was a little younger than Matilda is now. Then my sister Katy used it, and then it was passed down to Matilda. How cool is that?

What's even more awesome is that my mum found the photos of Amy wearing the dinosaur costume fourteen years ago. And crikey doesn't Matilda look just like her? When Tom showed her the pictures she thought that they were both her! 

I love family hand me downs don't you? Especially hand made ones with such a history.

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Doodling new logo ideas for the rebrand.

{pencil sketching, May 2013}

A sketch, photo, or work in progress. A little glimpse into the way we work or what we're working on. Keeping creative and sharing the goodness.

P.S.  If you want to join in with the {a little glimpse} posts please do share your link in the comments so we can pop by and have a peek.

instagramming the week

It was an up and down week last week. Rain and sunshine. Playing outside and hibernating inside. Getting amazing news and dealing with difficult customer issues. Hectic afternoons and quiet coffee shop moments. Working outside and dashing back in again when the rain came. Working on the present and sketching the future. 

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framed hearts are in the building... who wants a free one?

I'm very excited to tell you that I can now offer framed bamboo hearts. The hearts can still be personalised as before but with the added option of background colour choices. And guess what... to celebrate I'm going to give one away! You can find out more at the bottom of the post.

I have listed them as a few different options in my noths shop but essentially you can have use them for whatever you fancy. 

Father's Day versions can be found here and even though the actual day is a month away they have started selling already. Can you believe that Father's Day is the second biggest gifting occasion of the year after Christmas? It's crazy isn't it? Apparently it's because the women buy all the gifts! 

I thought this sample wording was particularly appropriate for anyone with little ones, and daddy's that are up doing the night shift will probably appreciate it! Of course you can choose whatever wording you would like but I thought this was a fun one for the photos.

The new baby framed hearts are listed here. A pretty sweet keepsake gift if I do say so myself! 

I've chosen the pinky photo as the main product photo but they work just as well with green or blue backgrounds. 

The hearts are the larger 8.5cm ones, and the frames are about 18cm x 18cm. 

The frames have no glazing in as standard so that you can see and touch the beauty of the bamboo wood. There is something really special about the bamboo wood and it feels divine. The lettering is hand stamped just like with all of the other hearts and I can fit about 50 characters onto the heart.

I have added a glazing option in case anyone would prefer it. The glazing is ultra clear, ultra safe styrene and if you go for that then the heart will be set back rather than stand out. 

The final version I have listed is a wedding gift version. 

I've also just listed personalised wedding cards in my Not On The High Street shop that feature the smaller hearts.

I kind of feel like these are an heirloom in the making kind of a gift. Something that will be treasured for a long long time. There is something so natural about them, and I just love stamping all of the different personalisations. It feels pretty special. 

So... how do you fancy winning one? 

The prize is one framed heart, worth £37, completely custom made and personalised for the winner.  

You could keep it for yourself, give it as a gift, or be super organised for Father's Day without having to spend a penny. All you have to do is *leave a comment on this post* and I will randomly choose a winner when the giveaway ends at 9pm GMT on Friday 24th May. The giveaway is open worldwide.

If you would like to share the goodness I might possibly love you forever. And maybe even send you some virtual cupcakes. With sprinkles. Pinky promise.

Click to tweet: Framed bamboo hearts are in the building! Who wants a free one? Enter the giveaway on the Cupcakes for Clara blog... http://bit.ly/16CkuE8

Click to tweet: Do you want to win a personalised piece of prettiness? Head to the Cupcakes for Clara blog to find out how... http://bit.ly/16CkuE8

Good luck lovelies x

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Recently I have been thinking a lot about the future of my business. Wondering about the way forward and how to bring the plans I have for everything into existence. It's kind of scary to think about the big things, but really exciting too. 

A lot of long time followers will know that one thing I have been trying to decide about for a long time is whether or not to change my business name. I've always gone back and forth and back and forth on whether to make a change and never really felt comfortable with the decision. But last weekend I did make a decision. One that I'm a little bit giddy about. It feels like the future has opened up, like the confidence I need to have in my business is getting stronger, and like the possiblities really are endless. 

So the image above might give you a little clue as to the way I'm going to move forward with things. The name change will come with a fancy pants new website full of fun, downloads and my very own online shop. Nothing will change too much but I think this decision will make the business better, stronger, and with more room for growth. 

I have been doodling logos and website layouts over the past couple of days. I haven't got any finished designs yet but I'm absolutely loving working towards them. It isn't going to happen overnight but if you receive an order one day and label says "claraandmacy.com" instead of "cupcakesforclara.com" well now you know why!

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instagramming the week

This week has been the usual mix of work, family, story writing, story telling, going to the park instead of going to bed, and wearing cat socks. With a little bit of Christmas thrown into the mix!

simply over the moon

It has been a crazy hectic few weeks. I have been tucked away during the warmest days of the year so far creating my 2013 Christmas range. For serious. 

I am absolutely thrilled to share with you this little AW13 look book I have created to showcase the Autumn Winter range. I would never have been this organised ordinarily but a big Not On The High Street deadline kind of forced me to get my groove on. I finished half done ideas, started new ones, made samples, photographed prototypes, and generally refined the range. And I am completely in love with it.

Some of the products will be available over the next couple of months, and others will be in the shop around August/September time. I will also be offering most of them wholesale too so if you are interested in stocking any in your lovely shop then please do give me a shout. And I'll be sharing more details about everything soon.

In other ridiculously exciting news, news that I still can't quite believe, I have been shortlisted for a Not On The High Street Make Award.

The Storefront Success Award to be precise. Out of more than three thousand sellers on the site I am one of only three shortlisted in my category! How awesome is that?

I did a fair amount of jumping up & down in the house by myself when I found out about the shortlist. Some of my fabulously talented friends have been shortlisted too. It's very exciting.

We'll find out the winners at Noths' annual Make do & Meet event in two weeks. It's going to be a fancy all day event at the Royal Opera House. Squeal! I'm so excited... and completely nervous now too. You can read more about the awards here. Of course I would love to win, but just being shortlisted is amazing - especially as I've only been on the site for just over nine months. It makes me feel like I am truly on the right path, that perhaps I'm not just a girl with a far fetched dream, and that maybe I should have a little more confidence in my ability. 

an all in one card and gift solution

Do you remember a little while ago I was telling you that I was prototyping some cards to attach the personalised bamboo hearts to?

Well I've finally got there with them. It took a little development to get them to a stage where I felt truly happy with them and made sure they were "me" enough. Does that make sense?

At the moment the cards are exclusively available on Not On The High Street but I will be extending this out soon. I am considering offering non-personalised versions wholesale but I haven't quite got that far yet. I might do some prototyping this week.

But these cards can be completely personalised. There are four colours to choose from and the wording can be altered along with the date/name stamped into the hearts. 

Birthday cards can be found here.

Welcome to the world cards are perfect as new baby gifts.

I was thrilled to receive two orders for these last week made on the day that the babies were born. That's some very quick ordering! I felt extremely priviledged to be making gifts for such brand new babies. 

There are two Father's Day versions in slightly more dad type colours. Of course if you fancy a hot pink one for your dad then just let me know!

The little hearts version can be personalised with any amount of hearts *children*, and if the names are too long to all fit onto the heart then I can stamp initials. 

The my heart belongs to daddy version is pretty cute too right? 

I will be adding to the range with christening, wedding, christmas and other occasion cards over the next few weeks. If there is something you would specifically like that isn't listed though just give me a shout and I'm sure I can do it for you.

Another thing I am prototyping with the hearts is framed versions. It was a little brainwave I had last week when I was looking at my sample frames.

I think they might work quite well especially as new baby or wedding gifts. What do you think? 

instagramming the week

Last week was a week of catching up after our little holiday, and I still didn't manage to blog properly. I'm sorry about that. I will try much harder to keep up this week!

In between the hundreds of email replies and getting to grips with my new Royal Mail business account it was a pretty fun week. I had a little assistant for the first couple of days, and he had an assistant too (called Henry) who came everywhere with us. That postal sack at the top is my very first business mailing. I'm pretty proud of that. It feels like a real achievement.

The sun came out which meant new spring shoes, playing in the park, beautiful blue skies, forget-me-nots, and a perfect Saturday in the garden. 

Work days included prototyping new products, photographing new cards, pondering framing the bamboo hearts (what do you think?), stitching little felt shoes, and gluing teeny pegs. I also managed to track down a copy of Prima Spring Makes featuring my rabbit kit. 

Despite having a rather nasty procedure done on my wrist at the beginning of it, it really was a lovely week.